colin Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 These motorhome things, who needs them? Kin expensive, much better ways of spending money. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurence Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 Its not just about cost, the other important aspect that some have mentioned here is coverage, very important as a motorhomer. At the start of the year I was on O2 but had been more and more fed up with the lack of coverage in many of the areas we travelled. Lake District - very poor outside the towns; Keilder- nothing; west coast of Scotland - great swathes with no coverage. Yet at the top of every hill, or beside every remote lake when I had no coverage, there was always some bloke nearby on EE jabbering away on his 'phone (l asked). So when Plusnet came along and offered me 'mates rates' for their mobile coverage using the EE network (as I have Plusnet broadband), it was a no-brainer (probably to Deneb as well). The cost was £6 for unlimited calls and texts and 2gb of data, and I grabbed it for myself and the wife. BUT, shortly afterwards I stood wondering why I was standing in the middle of Plymouth with just one intermittent bar on the 'phone, then the same in Southampton, and the same in Portsmouth. It was then patiently explained to me that EE hire out their network to third party providers, who pay for a proportion of the connectivity. EE do it on a one-third/two-thirds/full provision depending on how much the third party pays. Plusnet contract to EE on a one-third connectivity basis only, ASDA, for example, contract on a two-thirds basis. If you want the full connectivity coverage, you have to go with EE. To prove this, I stood beside someone on the middle of Plymouth who had the same phone as me, on EE PAYG, and my one bar contrasted with her 4 bars. After this I cancelled the Plusnet contract and signed up with EE. You pay a bit more, but the coverage is excellent and there is always a strong signal. As I have previously noted, the EE coverage is also very good in remote areas, and depending on where you travel, this is worth thinking about. The moral of this is : you get what you pay for! Regards, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billggski Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 Actually the bars are not a representation of the signal strength. https://www.signalbooster.com/pages/what-do-signal-bars-on-a-cell-phone-really-mean I have EE which when at home is weak, but my wife's giff gaff is much better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurence Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 Hi Bill, I believe Giff Gaff use the O2 network, so it's difficult to compare this with EE signal strength or coverage. If you look at piggybacking lists, third-party providers are listed as being 'major players' or 'minnows' , and Plusnet Mobile are a minnow. This does nor refer to the size of the firm, but the proportion of the connectivity they have contracted for. It makes sense that if your third party provider has only contracted for a part of the connectivity, your mobile is not going to be as well connected as one on the full connectivity. The point I was making is that Plusnet only purchase a relatively small proportion of EE connectivity, and that is how they can offer such low prices. Also, it explains poor signal strength on my 'phone compared to another next to it on the EE network. Having used Plusnet Mobile, I can tell you that going to EE has transformed the connectivity of the 'phone, and - to me - it is well worth the additional cost, particularly as we travel to many rural and remote areas. Regards, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pagey Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 probably not much use to the op but i got this via vodaphone works for me https://www.e2save.com/sim-only/vodafone-sim-only-deals Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robinhood Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 AIUI, being on a main network provider or a subsidiary MVNO one should make no difference to signal strength, which is a fixed function of the 'phone and the distance/topology to the mast. Likewise, it should make little or no difference to voice-call or text functionality. Where differences can arise is in data performance. The MVNOs can contract for a fixed maximum amount of bandwidth, and it is quite possible that contention would "throttle" data performance more regularly than that for the main carrier. Both O2 and GiffGaff are owned by the same parent (Telefonica) and I believe I have read, but can't find it now, that there is little or no throttling on the GiffGaff network vs that for native O2 users. (Certainly, my experience has been pretty good). There are certainly fairly good deals to be had out there on 12 month or even 30 day rolling contracts, but the big advantage to me (and others) of GiffGaff is the complete lack of any commitment. I can be PayGo when I want to be (usually when I'm at home, as I have other ways of accessing 'data'- and free mobile calls); When I want significant amounts of data, possibly on my travels, I can buy a "goodybag" with the appropriate amount of data in it, and that will be valid for a month. I can then either drop back to Paygo, or buy more data (a different amount if necessary). For me, it provides an ideal halfway house between PayGo and contract, and means I can tailor it to my needs at much cheaper cost than a full contract. All with no contractual commitment (the only committed money being the value of my current balance and/or "goodybag"). Any top-up/purchase is very easy online, and virtually instantaneous. Anyone with a predictable pattern of usage with reasonable amounts of data use consistently spread would probably be slightly better off on a contract, but even then, GiffGaff with a regular, automatically renewed "goodybag" would probably run it close. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 Laurence - 2018-12-30 5:53 PM I believe Giff Gaff use the O2 network, so it's difficult to compare this with EE signal strength or coverage. They are both part of Telefonica. there have in past been a few differences, at one time 4g was available on o2 but not gifgaf. funny enough PlusNet and EE are part of BT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yeo1 Posted December 31, 2018 Share Posted December 31, 2018 Check out 3 http://www.three.co.uk/Store/SIM/Plans_for_phones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keninpalamos Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 I bought an iphone2 at the end of 2007 and back then you could only use 02. I did go to Vodaphone for a year but went back to 02. I have a sim only deal and find I am lucky with the coverage I get from them. At present I’m paying £25 a month for 30gb “ free tx & calls”. (Believe me nothing is free in this life) The 30gb allows me to watch TV in Spain etc without fear of running out of data. Silly thing is, I don’t use it that much now. Yet when I had a max of 15gb I was always using it up inside the month and they charge the earth to add on a couple of gb if you run out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rooster63 Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 Can endorse thinking if you have more than one phone it is worth having 2 different networks my wife is on O2 and I'm on Plusnet (EE). Sometimes only one of us can get a signal. It was interesting to read about Plusnet having some restrictions placed on coverage by EE, perhaps that explains that I tend to have 'no signal' more than my wife. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruisecontrol Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 Have look at 1p. They are 1p for a minute,text and Mbyte. Like Virgin they piggyback on EE. Currently within the EU the costs are the same. You just need to top up with £10 every 3 months https://tinyurl.com/ydaxvuev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMS Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 I use a true pay as you go that does not have a end date. Thus it costs me about £40 to £50 per year for Texting and a few calls in mainland Europe. Free wifi I use for emails when on sites or elswhere. A very economic solution for my usage, the cost for texts and calls is high but they are limited. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 EMS - 2019-01-02 7:42 PM I use a true pay as you go that does not have a end date. Thus it costs me about £40 to £50 per year for Texting and a few calls in mainland Europe. Free wifi I use for emails when on sites or elswhere. A very economic solution for my usage, the cost for texts and calls is high but they are limited. That sounds quite expensive for low usage, as an example my contract costs £36 a year, 500/500/500 mins/MB/sms per month, without the talktalk discount you should be able to get similar for £60 a year last time I looked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derek500 Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 If you're a Sky subscriber, Sky Mobile is excellent. £6 a month with unlimited calls and texts. 1gb of data per month, which if not used is 'banked' for up to 36 months. We've got one sim each and rarely use data, but it's great for having loads stored for when we're away. Off to Spain in three weeks and we've banked 15.77gb plus another 4gb of this and next month's allowance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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